Over the past 24 hours, Collegiate Gateway has received many questions from students and parents about whether to cancel SAT Subject Test scores from last Saturday, June 7. Cancellations need to be received in writing by 11:59pm tomorrow, Wednesday June 11.
Generally, it is not advisable to cancel Subject Tests, except in the event of a calamity: your equipment malfunctioned, you panicked and answered less than half the questions, or a natural disaster occurred that was strong enough to distract you but not strong enough to cause the test center to evacuate.
Why do we advise this? Firstly, students often do better than they think. Keep in mind that you do not need to answer all questions correctly to get a perfect score. Many exams, such as Math II and Physics have such a generous curve that you can omit 33% or 40% of the questions, respectively, and still score in the 700s (if you answer the remaining questions correctly).
Secondly, the College Board allows for Score Choice, meaning you can determine which SAT and specific Subject Tests scores you release to each college. In the event that you receive a sub-par score, you can choose not to submit it to colleges. Additionally, if you took multiple Subject Tests, you cannot cancel only one, but must cancel all. When you report the Subject Tests, however, you can choose individual tests to report, and do not need to report all that you took on a particular test day.
It is true that some colleges have their own policy of requiring students to send all SAT scores, if you report any SAT scores. But most really do use only your highest SAT scores as part of their admissions review; if you retake a particular Subject Test, the college will typically only include the higher score in their official review. And for those of you who prefer the ACT – if you choose to report only ACT scores, you are not required to report any SAT test scores you have received.
A relevant factor to consider is your own estimation of your scaled score based on the number of questions you answered, and the number of questions you feel you may have answered incorrectly. Unfortunately, the College Board does not publish conversion charts of raw scores to scaled scores. However, this information is available from other sources.
How can you cancel Subject Test scores?
If you do decide to cancel your scores, you can do so on the day of the test, before you leave the test site, or in written form by 11:59pm on the Wednesday after you take the test. For further information on how to cancel your scores, contact Collegiate Gateway.